Presently, computer systems are used throughout daily life including both work and entertainment. For example, many people have a computing system in the home. Moreover, the utilization of home computers for various forms of entertainment such as, listening to music, watching television, surfing the Internet, online collaboration while playing a video game and the like is steadily growing.
Additional advances in computer processing power, hard drive size, and the like, have promoted further integration with household activities such as audio and video systems. For example, a user may connect a television, speakers, surveillance cameras, or a plurality of other devices into a computing network. Then, for example, a user can play music to different locations throughout the house by simply selecting the desired functionality on the computing system. In many cases, the entertainment provided by the computer, e.g., the audio or video, may be received from the Internet in the form of streaming media, downloaded music, on demand videos and the like.
Although the ability to run a home sound system and the like through a computer network is convenient there are still a number of downfalls. For example, if the computing system is rendered inoperable, the entire network managed from the computer also becomes inoperable. That is, a virus, computer error, spilled drink or the like is capable of causing deleterious computer system failure and therefore complete network failure. Moreover, if the computer is fatally lost and unrecoverable, the entire network-connected devices configuration will also be inaccessible, fatally lost and/or unrecoverable.